Now that I finally found (the elusive) durum flour (after been making semolina bread with fine semolina all along), I wanted to find out what differences between fine semolina and durum flour would produce in a finished product. I wanted to try this with the bread that I made using fine semolina before, Semolina Bread from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread cookbook.

Taste-wise I couldn’t tell or feel the differences. They both have lovely flavour and nice chewy texture (though the bread I made with fine semolina was a distant memory).

The differences were more in the dough structure. I found durum flour absorb the water better and easier to work with. Fine semolina hardly absorbed any water and the dough was really wet and slack from my memory.

Bread made with durum flour also got better crumb structure, it was more open and rise well during the bake. The one made with semolina were rather flat, the crumb was relatively open and all but it just didn’t rise and dome nicely.

This bread has 60% durum flour and 67% hydration. I was surprised that the crumb wasn’t creamy and yellow as I would expect from durum flour. It was only a tad creamier than an all-wheat bread.

This bread is one of my favourite. I love the aroma and texture of sesame seeds in bread (or in anything really) and the durum flour also add sweet creamy flavour to the bread, and tender crumb. I used black sesame seeds instead of white as I find the black sesame seeds are more flavourful. I love its smoky flavour.

Black sesame seeds has the same nutty flavour as their white counterpart. The white one is more subtle. I found the black sesame has stronger flavour, smokier and roastier, and slightly salty.

There was the health craze for black sesame seeds in Thailand (my home country) back years and years ago, that it was good for heart health. And I think it has superior health benefits than the white ones. You can generally find them in an Asian store.

That is lovely, Sue! Not sure if it is the white balance gone awry, but the loaf made from fine semolina looks yellower than the one made with durum flower. Today I received the semola di grano duro rimacinata (re-milled semolina) that I ordered last week and am hoping to bake with it on the weekend. While it looks finer than the regular semolina that I already have, it still doesn't look like flour (I haven't opened the bag yet but part of the packaging is transparent). What I have sounds more like what you used on your first bake rather than durum flour. Like Andy, I really like the contrast between the crumb and the black sesame.

Yes, I think it was the technicality of the camera made the bread (one with fine semolina) looked creamier than it actually was.

Speaking about the durum flour, I agree that the texture is not as fine as wheat flour. I find them to be a tad gritty. I think there is another flour called "extra fancy durum flour", which I believe is more flour-like consistency.

They look awesome, Sue! On your picture of the crumb between the fine salmolina flour and durum flour, The fine salmolina loaf looks softer than the durum one. I love both of the crumb, though. I also like your scoring, of course! Thank you for sharing your experience that is very helpful to me because I recently ordered 4 packages of 17.6oz Bellino salmolina flour recently at Amazon.

I love black sesame seeds especially in Chinese sweet desert (homemade version) during cold season. Have you ever try brown sesame seeds? Thank for durum and semolina flour info, I’m out searching for semolina flour this coming weekend. Can you post both flour side by side (picture)? I saw the semolina flour at my local co-op but they aren’t fine enough for breads. I love your sesame coating crust. I think you are right about chai tea or chai latte. Thanks

Hello Sue, Your bread is gorgeous and the crumb with the seeds very open and delicious looking.

The duram 'flour' I purchase from KAFlours is even finer than the one you are showing, the one on the right, it appears to have very fine granules, my duram flour has no granules is ground into a soft flour. I can purchase in our local stores a semolina 'extra fancy' grind for pasta that looks very similar to the one pictured on your Right. 'Bob's Red Mill'also sells the 'extra fancy semolina pasta grind' in our local stores...I've made many delicious loaves also using the extra fancy semolina pasta grind. I have photos here The left is the extra fancy I use for some breads and pasta making, and the right is the Duram Flour grind. If you look closely you will see the fine granules of the pasta extra fancy semolina and the very soft Duram flour on the left, you won't see any granules.

Hope this helps, as I used to purchase the extra fancy mistaking it for the duram flour.

You're truly a Durum Flour/Italian Bread expert. The flour that I purchased has a picture (and potentially descritpion in Itaian) indicating that they're for pasta making.

I think the flour that I used is something in between your two flour. They're not as fine as extra fancy durum flour and they're slightly finer than the one on your left. This picture really explains a lot.

I have to confess that I also used the fine semolina (the left one on my pic) to make pasta, and they're really lovely and worked fine too.

I love both loaves, but I most appreciate you showing us pictorally the differences in outcomes depending on the flour used. My expectation was that the durum would absorb more water than the fine semolina, and I'm happy to see that confirmed.

Super scoring on a perfectly proofed loaf, and an open airy crumb to show off the black sesame seeds. Very nice.

Thanks for showing the comparison between the two flours and baking results, as this is of particular interest to me these days. With any luck I'll have delivery next week of 25#'s of x-fancy durum flour to play with, so this is great information to have for a flour I've never used before.

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